


Don't be afraid of me

by CutesyMe



Series: Kyouhaba Week June [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Internet Friends, KyouHaba Week, KyouHaba Week 2016, Kyouhabab Week June, M/M, a couple misunderstandings, my awesome friend gave me that idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 21:31:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7285483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CutesyMe/pseuds/CutesyMe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yahaba merely pushed his laptop towards Kyoutani and tried to act noncholant about the whole thing. But he stared at Kyoutani from the corner of his eyes because one thing that Yahaba had learned about Kyoutani in these past days was that Kyoutani was good at this. He knew what a good poem was and what not.</p><p>Kyoutani seemed frozen for a long moment, mouth and eyes wide open, hand frozen over the keyboard of the laptop. Just as Yahaba wanted to push Kyoutani, he closed his mouth and turned towards Yahaba, his whole face red.</p><p>"So?" Yahaba inquired with raised eyebrows.</p><p>"It is good, I guess," Kyoutani retorted and Yahaba scoffed.</p><p>"'I guess'? It's perfect."</p><p> </p><p>(Or in which Yahaba has an internet friend who writes poems and befriending Kyoutani is more natural that Yahaba would've thought)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't be afraid of me

**Author's Note:**

> I am late for Day 4 of Kyouhaba Week and that's why I'm also late for Day 5, but at least this turned out satisfying.
> 
> The prompt is friendship. Hope you like it.

"I didn't take you for this much of a coward," Watari said with a grimace on his face.

Yahaba rolled his eyes and refrained from hitting his friend. Instead he read the poem again – Watari had started counting how many times Yahaba read it so he could tease him about it but then lost count of it – and still couldn't believe that the person – Ken was his name according to his blog - he always fangirled about had dedicated a poem to him.

The problem now was that Yahaba wanted to thank him properly but he had never properly talked to him. He had only complimented him a couple of times on his talent, – to which the poet always replied in short sentences – had reblogged all of his poems and fangirled about them in the tags. It was obvious that Yahaba was a loser and gone for the poet. He couldn't just go up to him and start a conversation.

"Come on now." Watari nudged Yahaba. "You just need to say thanks for the dedication, the poem was beautiful, do you want to marry me?"

Yahaba hit Watari with a pillow in his face and was happy to see that the smile had disappeared from his face. Sometimes even best friends like Watari were a curse.

Yahaba exhaled deeply, suddenly getting an inspiration for a message, and then opened the ask page on his blog.

> _Thank you soo much for the poem. It was yet again very beautiful. You're type of person I would love to know in real life and be friends with. Thanks again._

Yahab typed the message fast and sent it before he could change his mind. He tried not to let the smile on Watari's face make him feel like he did a mistake.

When it was already almost midnight and Yahaba still hadn't gotten a reply to his message, that was when he was convinced that the message had been a mistake. Couldn't he just have said that he loved the poem, like all the other times, and not have been weirdly pushy and thus come off as creepy?

In the past hours Yahaba had been so often on Ken's blog that he felt like a stalker. When he remembered that you could see who visited your blog the most, Yahaba freaked out even more and stopped going on the site.

When the vibration of his phone woke Yahaba up in the middle of the night, he groaned and tiredly looked at his notifications. His heart started beating so fast that he thought it would wake up the whole house when he saw that Ken had answered his message.

> _I'd like that too._

The screech that he let out did wake his parents.

Watari took all the credit for himself when Yahaba told him that most probably him and Ken were now friends. Yahaba was too much in a good mood to let his friend's teasing get to him. As long as his senpais didn't get to know about this, Yahaba was okay with Watari teasing him about this. Yahaba was in such a good mood that not even Kyoutani's scowling face could irritate him.

It was hard for Yahaba to hold back and not message Ken the whole time since he was too excited to be finally friends with the guy he had admired for so long. That was why Yahaba was also irritated at the fact that Ken's answers were always short and didn't seem genuine at all.

It took Yahaba a couple of days to have Ken tell him that he wasn't good at socializing. After that Yahaba felt guilty for pushing Ken so much and sent him three messages where he apologized profusely.

> _It's okay. You couldn't know that you're my only friend._

That message actually broke Yahaba's heart. He bit his lower lip and pondered about what he could reply to that. In the end Yahaba didn't have to say anything at all.

Yahaba told Ken everything about himself, his hobbies, likes, and dislikes, only letting out personal information, and wasn't bothered that Ken barely shared anything about himself. He let Ken go on his own pace.

Yahaba was at practice when Ken tagged him in a photo of his small pomenerian, who had a white spot on his forehead, and Yahaba barely held in a squeak as he replied to it. An arm around his shoulder ripped him out of his fantasies about Ken, although he didn't know how he looked.

"What has made my precious kouhai so happy?" Oikawa mused with one of his usual grins that didn't reach his eyes and meant that he was up to no good.

"Nothing special, Oikawa-san," Yahaba replied, and saw how Oikawa's forehead crinkled at the fact that Yahaba still didn't want to call him senpai. Oikawa didn't have to know that Yahaba did it on purpose because Yahaba liked see the irritation on Oikawa's face, which was more of a genuine feeling than his usual grins.

"I need your help. Or rather Kyouken-chan needs your help," Oikawa said and motioned at Kyoutani who was standing close to them, Iwaizumi standing next to Kyoutani as if to make sure that the second year wouldn't run away. "You're good in biology, right?"

Yahaba nodded slowly at the question, realizing that he had no other choice than to answer with the truth.

"Let me make you an offer. You teach Kyoken-chan biology and I'll treat you to ramen."

"I'm supposed to do you a favour and you're punishing me for that. That's not fair Oikawa-san."

Iwaizumi snorted and Oikawa let out a, "Yahaba-chan, rude."

In the end Yahaba went along with it altough he didn't actually want to. It took Yahaba fives minutes and a slap on the back of Oikawa's head from Iwaizumi for Oikawa to drop the offer with the ramen. It wasn't that Yahaba hated Kyoutani, he just didn't like him. They went to Yahaba's, Kyoutani refusing to go to his house.

Kyoutani stumbled upon a small "thanks for having me" when he saw Yahaba's mother in the kitchen and then followed Yahaba into his room. After some taunts from Yahaba's side and murderous glances from Kyoutani's, Yahaba managed to convince Kyoutani to stay after he recalled Oikawa's words that they needed Kyoutani for the next tournament.

It pained Yahaba to keep in the insults that popped into his minds when Kyoutani asked him the easiest questions with a deep red face. In the end Yahaba sprawled out his literature assignment in front of himself, his laptop also there to show him the poem he had to analyse. Yahaba checked in another tab whether or not Ken had answered him.

"That's not a personification."

Yahaba actually had to pause for a second to realize that Kyoutani had talked to him. He looked at him and managed an ineloquent "huh?"

Kyoutani's cheeks tinted with a pink colour and he looseley pointed at the note Yahaba had just written down on his page, stuttering. "That's an anthropomorphism. Not a personification."

Yahaba faced Kyoutani with raised eyebrows, trying to keep the taunt out of his voice. "And why do you think is that?"

"Because scent is not entirely a human thing. Flowers scent too, for example. So a love that scents isn't a personification but an antropomorphism. Justizia is a personification."

Yahaba had to admit to himself that he was impressed, which didn't mean that he was going to admit out loud. He contemplated for a second and then asked. "Are you good at poetry?"

Kyoutani shrugged. "Decent, I guess."

"Lets make a deal then."

Kyoutani who had already sunk his head into his notes again, looked up and stared at Yahaba.

"I'll help you in biology and you'll teach me some things about poems."

Kyoutani stared at him a little wide eyed and then nodded, retreating back to his notes.

And that was exactly what they did in the next days. They met up and tutored each other. Kyoutani was surprisingly good at it, convincing Yahaba that the personification-antropomorphism-thing wasn't a coincidence.

Yahaba didn't tell Ken about him getting tutions in poetry, though Yahaba noticed the changes in his understanding of poems. That was one of the reasons why Yahaba looked forward to meeting up with Kyoutani. He wanted to impress Ken, even started writing a small poem himself.

That was how they also ended on one Saturday afternoon in Yahaba's room on his floor, laptop and papers sprawled out in front oft hem. Yahaba had opened a window with one of Ken's poems that he had reblogged on his blog. He was so tired from staying up late last night, talking to Ken and working on his poem, that he only wanted to lean his head on Kyoutani's shoulder and close his eyes.

"Why are you so interested in poems?" Kyoutani asked, avoiding Yahaba's gaze.

Yahaba's first thought was to sass Kyoutani but then he remembered how well they got along with each other these past days, so much that it even irritated Yahaba a little but he still didn't want to ruin that. Surprisingly, the two of them had managed to also get along on court and found a way to even have small talks with each other. When one day Watari had dragged Kyoutani to the spot where him and Yahaba had lunch together, and saw Kyoutani randomly pick out a notebook and write in it, no one questioned it. Yahaba felt even relief when he had realized that he now had an ace he could rely on on his side, that would make everything next year a lot easier for Yahaba.

So Yahaba breathed in through his nose and said. "Because I met this person who writes so beautifully that I just can't help but admire them. It inspires me to write myself."

Kyoutani stared at him for a moment, in which Yahaba's whole face felt like it was on fire.

"Can I see one of them?"

Yahaba merely pushed his laptop towards Kyoutani and tried to act noncholant about the whole thing. But he stared at Kyoutani from the corner of his eyes because one thing that Yahaba had learned about Kyoutani in these past days was that Kyoutani was good at this. He knew what a good poem was and what not.

Kyoutani seemed frozen for a long moment, mouth and eyes wide open, hand frozen over the keyboard of the laptop. Just as Yahaba wanted to push Kyoutani, he closed his mouth and turned towards Yahaba, his whole face red.

"So?" Yahaba inquired with raised eyebrows.

"It is good, I guess," Kyoutani retorted and Yahaba scoffed.

"'I guess'? It's perfect."

From then on quite a few things seemed to go downwards in Yahaba's life. Kyoutani suddenly seemed to go out of his way, the small converstaions they used to have when they were at practice had died down, the small rythm they had built up during training didn't seem to work anymore, and their study sessions decreased so rapidly that they just died down in an instant without a word from Kyoutani as to why.

Even Ken seemed to have gotten back to how he had been in the beginning of their friendship.

> _Sometimes I feel like everything would look more beautiful if I had you right next to me._

Yahaba felt reckless while typing and sending that message.

> _I doubt you would like me if you knew me._

That message hurt Yahaba so much he had to put his phone away.

The sting he felt when Kyoutani stopped coming to their lunch spot felt very similar to that. It felt as if everything was slipping out of Yahaba's hands and it was ripping him inside out. The ace he was slowly learning to rely on, a strength he had prided himself in having him on his side, suddenly wasn't next to him anymore and he felt like he couldn't stand the thought of next year again. Kyoutani wouldn't even talk to him anymore.

So one day he just snapped.

He pushed Kyoutani against a wall when Yahaba had asked him a question and Kyoutani had ignored it and walked past Yahaba.

"What is wrong with you?" Yahaba snarled and ignored Kindaichi who ran back into the locker rooms just so he didn't have to walk by Yahaba and Kyoutani. "Why are you ignoring me?"

Kyoutani stared at him wide eyed, staying silently against the wall and making no effort to push Yahaba away and defend himself. Yahaba grit his teeth and tightened his hold on Kyoutani's shirt when he didn't answer.

"I asked you something."

"Who are you and what did you do to my precious Yahaba-chan?"

Yahaba suppressed to groan loudly at Oikawa's words but decided not to in favour of glaring at Kyoutani. He didn't want to deal with his soul-eating senpai now, felt too vulnerable to be at the mercy of someone like Oikawa. His words felt like they were a command to let Kyoutani go.

The arm around Yahaba's shoulder felt like a second command and like a weight that was weighing him down for not having obeyed the first time. Yahaba slowly let go of Kyoutani, his anger leaving him with one sigh and he only felt tired now. He followed Oikawa to the other side of the gym, feeling a little better when he saw Iwaizumi approach Kyoutani, and ignored his gawking team. He really hadn't put himself in the best light just there.

"I knew you didn't like Kyoutani-kun," Oikawa said with a smile that was making Yahaba feel uneasy. "But I would have never thought that you would do that something like that. Especially after I saw you two get along so well these past days."

"Ask him," Yahaba tried not to sound bitter, but even if he weren't so obvious, he was sure Oikawa would have noticed it either way. "He is the one who just went back to how we were at the beginning in less than one day without a word about why."

The smile had left Oikawa's face and he was staring at Yahaba through narrowed eyes. He ordered Yahaba to run ten laps in five minutes as a punishment for having disturbed his teams peace, and if he failed to do so he had to do five extra laps. Yahaba didn't care. In fact he even took that as a chance to run as slow as possible without looking suspicious so he didn't have to be on court with Kyoutani.

Afterwards he made sure not to be near Kyoutani but Oikawa ordered these two to work together.

When Yahaba finally had a day off from school and practice he wanted to make sure to relax and forget about everything for the day. But apparently everything had a deeper effect on Yahaba than he wanted to admit and it left him restless for the rest oft he day.

In the afternoon he decided to take a walk and stop by the park where people walked their dogs because they always put him in a better mood. He was content with sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree, and watching the dogs run around.

When Yahaba felt a wet sensations against his bare arm, he was glad that no one was near him because of the embarrassing sound that he made. He looked down at a small pomenerian who seemed to be smiling at him, and smiled back.

The dog put his front paws on Yahaba's thigh and Yahaba immediately put him on his lap, stroking him. The dog barked happily, nuzzling his face on Yahaba's chest and laid down with his tongue poking out. Yahaba laughed and continued to stroke him.

Yahaba was so engrossed in petting the dog who seemed a little familiar that he didn't feel the presence standing next to him. He looked up from the dog when he heard someone clear their throat, already starting to apologize for basically abducting the dog, but he freezed when he saw Kyoutani standing there. The smile vanished from Yahaba's face and he looked at the smiling dog who was still staring at him and then at Kyoutani was looking everywhere but at Yahaba.

Yahaba put the dog down, ignoring his whimpers and attempts to get on his laps again as best as he could, and refused to look at Kyoutani. Despite his efforts not to, Yahaba looked at the dog once again and petted him, the dog barking and leaning into his touch. Then Kyoutani scooped him up in his armd while mumbling something that Yahaba didn't understand.

For the rest of the day Yahaba thought about Kyoutani, never having taken him as someone who had a pomenerian. Maybe he was walking him for a neighbour. After all, Yahaba had experienced on first hand that Kyoutani could be very polite. Yahaba also thought about the dog the whole time. His attempts to tell himself that he might have seen the dog with Kyoutani some day but had forgotten about it and that was why the dog seemed familiar didn't convince him.

Even watching his favourite show didn't help. The protagonist of the show was in the middle of finding the corpse of his wife when Yahaba jolted with realization and almost knocked his laptop to the ground.

He closed the tab with his show, cutting off the protagonists screams, and opened a tab with Ken's blog, looking for the pictures of his dog. Yahaba's heart was beating so loud he felt like it would break his chest when he remembered that he had seen the same white spot on the same place on Kyoutani's dog as on Ken's. And indeed, it was right there.

Yahaba got up, not being able to sit still, walked up and down in his room. His Ken was Kyoutani. Kyoutani Kentarou. It made sense. In retrospect Kyoutani and Ken starting behaving oddly around the same time and both of them were phenomenal with poems.

After some pondering Yahaba remembered that Kyoutani started acting like his old self after their study session where Yahaba had shown him one of Ken's poems. Kyoutani must have seen Yahaba's blog too and realized that the person who he had dedicated a poem to was no one else than the setter who always annoyed him.

Yahaba's ears went bright red at the thought of Kyoutani dedicating a poem to him but refused to feel bad about it. Kyoutani was his Ken.

Yahaba decided the first thing he would do when he went to school was confront Kyoutani, because now more than ever he didn't want to lose him.

At that thought Yahaba graoned and told himself to stop being so melodramatic. He went to bed again, not feeling like watching his show, and tried to relax enough so he could sleep.

_I doubt you would like me if you knew me._

Yahaba rubbed his face furiously and graoned loudly into his hands. Kyoutani thought Yahaba hated him. Yahaba had started seeing Kyoutani as a friend but he was now convinced that dense Kyoutani hadn't seen that. Which was why he also retreated as Ken out of Yahaba's life.

He couldn't wait till school.

Yahaba fished his phone out of the pocket of his jeans that were lying on he floor and texted Iwaizumi, apologizing about bothering him and asking him about Kyoutani's address.

> **From:** _Iwaizumi-senpai_  
>  _Is everything alright?_
> 
> **To:** _Iwaizumi-sepai_  
>  _Yes. I just remembered somehing very important and need to talk it out face to face and not over a phone._  
>  _I promise I won't to slam him into a wall again._

Yahaba sighed when Iwaizumi sent him Kyoutani's address, and he took his jacket, running downstairs and yelling to his mum about how he would be home again soon and had to take care of something important.

He ran all the way to Kyoutani's house, the bus coming way too late for Yahaba's giddy mood. He barely saw a man and woman open the door after he had rung and immediately bowed deep.

"I'm sorry," he almost screamed, still out of breath. "I know it's late and I'm sorry for bothering you, but is Kyoutani-kun here?" Yahaba stood straight again, seeing the surprise written on the man's and woman's face. "I'm his friend and need to talk to him about something very important."

After sharing a glance with each the woman nodded and motioned Yahaba to enter. "It's the first door on the right. Upstairs."

"Thank you."

Yahaba walked upstairs and knocked on Kyoutani's door, feeling like his heart might jump out of his throat. Kyoutani's muffled voice allowed Yahaba to enter, so he pushed open the door and it took him a second to see Kyoutani laying on his bed with his dog resting on his stomach. Kyoutani hadn't seem him yet so Yahaba exhaled, entered the room and closed the door behind him.

That was when Kyoutani looked at him, and the small frown on his face turned into surprise. Kyoutani immediately sat up, scaring his dog who fell onto the bed, and Kyoutani hurried to scoop him into his arms but he jumped off the bed and ran towards Yahaba. Yahaba took the small pomenerian into his arms and then put him into the hallway, closing the door behind him. He heard the small whimpers and scratching on the door but ignored it and looked back at Kyoutani, who was frowning again.

"What do you want?" Kyoutani growled but his stance wasn't threatening at all.

Yahaba walked towards him, seeing Kyoutani's eyes widen a little, and raised his arms, suddenly angry again. He put his arms around Kyoutani's neck and decided to put his anger into the hug, feeling Kyoutani tense in his arms. Yahaba pushed his chest flush against Kyoutani's and hid his face in his neck.

"Ken," Yahaba breathed and heard Kyoutani gasp.

Yahaba took a small step back so he could look into Kyoutani's wide eyes, cupped his neck with one hand and snaked the other around his waist so Kyoutani couldn't escape. "You're Ken, right?"

Suddenly Yahaba felt so overwhelmed that he hugged Kyoutani again and nuzzled his face into Kyoutani's neck. He gasped when Kyoutani suddenly pushed him away and took some steps back to bring some distance between them. His whole face was crimson.

"You hate me," Kyoutani said with venom in his voice.

Yahaba shook his head. "No, I don't. Have you forgotten all the times I told you how much I admired you and wanted to be your friend?"

"You admired Ken. You hate Kyoutani."

Kyoutani sounded so small when he said that Yahaba had to remind himself not to scream at him for being so idiotic because of Kyoutani's parents downstairs and recalled the promise he made to Iwaizumi.

"No, I don't. Did that just look like I hated you. Didn't I make it clear in the past days that I saw us as friends?" Yahaba retorted. When he realized that Kyoutani wasn't going to understand like this, he breathed in deeply and explained. "I like and admired Ken for his talent. I don't know anything about him. I started to like you in these past couple of days after hanging out with you because of you. I know more about Kyoutani and know him better than I do with Ken. There is no chance that I like Ken more than Kyoutani. Who is the same person and that’s why it’s a little creepy that we’re talking like this, but yeah. I don’t hate you."

Kyoutani was standing exactly where he had run off to, looking rather flustered, and Yahaba gave him some time to process his words. Kyoutani opened his mouth a couple of times but closed it without saying anything. Yahaba sighed with a smile when he remembered the troubles of Ken to reply to his messages, so he approached Kyoutani and took his hands in his own.

“I’ll come over tomorrow to study with you for your biology exam on Tuesday,“ Yahaba spoke slowly and Kyoutani listened. “Then you can also tell me what exactly your inspiration for that poem was that you dedicated to me.“

Kyoutani’s eyes widened and he made an embarrassing sound, the redness from his cheeks reaching the tips of his ears, and Yahaba giggled. He pressed a kiss to Kyoutani’s cheek and then whispered. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.“

Yahaba left and apologized to Kyoutani’s parents again, thanking them for having him. He strolled home in peace with a smile on his face and couldn’t wait for it to get tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this wasn't a waste of your time and that you liked it. See you (hopefully) in a couple of minutes for Day 5.
> 
> tumblr: @mitaki


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